Merlin's Tired
by LenaChristine
Summary: Merlin is overloaded with chores and tired. Arthur is listing off his chores to complete before the morning, when Merlin snaps and shouts at him.
1. Merlin's Tired

Merlin was so tired. Why did he have to work for the prat? He couldn't stand him sometimes. Sure he was Merlin's best friend, but Arthur sure doesn't think that about Merlin. He is giving Merlin all of these chores to do. It wasn't fair. Why did he have to clean Arthur's clothes, muck out the stables, clean the CHAMBER POT, and clothe Arthur? Arthur had HANDS for a reason. There is no reason for the prat to put clothes on himself.

"Merlin! Are you even listening to me?!" Arthur inquired.

"Of course your _Highness_. You want me to muck out the stables, clean your room, and clean the chamber pot, along with polishing your armor and sharpening your bloody sword! Anything else?" ranted Merlin.

Arthur stood dumbfounded for a moment. Then he said:

"_Mer_lin! You are not allowed to talk to me that way! I can have you put in the stocks for that."

" Sorry your _Highness_. While all you have to do is wait for _me_ to change _your_ clothes and do everything else for you, while you get to go to sleep immediately after you're changed! **_I, _**on the other hand, have to do everything else for you. Then, when I get done with you, I have to go out into the woods to pick some herbs for Gaius. After that, I have errands to run for Gwen because I said that I would help her out with her chores. **_Finally_**, I get to go to bed. It's normally about 3 in the morning! I get TWO hours of sleep and then I have to go get your breakfast and get your LAZY ass out of bed!" Merlin rants.

Arthur just stares at Merlin. Merlin felt bad, but he also felt satisfied to finally get that off of his chest. Because he felt bad about yelling at Arthur, he left immediately to go get started on his chores. He figured Arthur wouldn't want to see Merlin until morning, where Merlin would have a peace offering. Otherwise known as Arthur's breakfast.

Merlin hurried to stables. He wanted to get this done as fast as he could. When he got to stables, he sees that some idiot had left the stable doors open, so the horses got out. That meant he had to track them down. Merlin groaned and took off after the horses. Merlin didn't see a person standing just inside of the stables.

Finally, Merlin had found all of horses and brought them into the stables. He noticed that a candle was already lit. Merlin looked around. Somebody had cleaned the stables!

Merlin figured that he might not want to spend too much time admiring the stables, for he still had a lot to do. So, Merlin headed towards the next place on his list: the armory. When he got there, he started searching for Arthur's armor. When he finally found it, he lit a candle and looked at the armor to see how bad it was. He was shocked! The armor also had been cleaned! Merlin didn't notice the person leaving the armory. Merlin was dumbstruck! Who would do Merlin's chores? Surely not Arthur because he didn't give two craps about Merlin! But Arthur was the only one that knew about Merlin's schedule. Not even Guise knew! Merlin didn't know. Oh well, he thought. Might as well move on.

So Merlin moved on to the next thing… cleaning Arthur's chamber pot. Merlin headed off to Arthur's room. Merlin, again, didn't notice the person watching him by the castle wall.

When Merlin got to Arthur's room, he found the door locked. He tried and tried to get it open. After five minutes of knocking and pushing the door to get it open, Merlin gave up. He didn't want to use magic because he could see the light from the candle, so that meant that Arthur was still up. So Merlin decided to see what errands Gwen had for him. He would wait for Guise because Guise was still upset with Merlin about last week. It wasn't his fault that all the stone animals turned to life! So Gwen it was.

When Merlin got there, he knocked on the door. Gwen opened up the door with a surprised look on her face.

"Merlin!" she said surprised.

"Gwen!" he said just as enthusiastically.

"What are you doing here?"

Here Merlin was confused.

"Gwen, I told you yesterday that I would help you with some of your chores…"

"Oh! That's ok Merlin! I uh… I finished them earlier today, so you don't have to worry about it."

"Um… ok then. If you're sure?"

"Positive"

"Alright then. Goodnight Gwen."

"Night Merlin."

Merlin was suspicious. He was almost certain that Gwen looked relieved to close the door. And he also knew that she was lying about finishing them earlier. Why would she lie to me, he thought.

Brushing off that incident, he hurried to get to Gaius before he went to sleep. When he got there, Gaius had left. Merlin saw a note on the table. It read:

"Merlin. Somebody has already picked the herbs that I needed. They told me to tell you that they were sorry. Please go to sleep. I will be staying in the lower town for the week. There is an illness spreading. I'll be back by Sunday."

Merlin really wanted to know who this person was. He did all of Merlin's chores, plus his errand for Gaius and helped Gwen. WHO WAS THIS PERSON?

Merlin was so busy thinking, he didn't even realize that he fell asleep. The next morning, he woke up just before dawn. Merlin figured that he might as well get dressed. When he was all dressed, it was time for him to get Arthur's breakfast. After skillfully climbing the stairs with the clotpole's breakfast, he tried the door again, this time to find it unlocked. When he opened the door, he found Arthur already dressed.

"Here's your breakfast Sire."

"You never call me Sire unless you want something. What do you want?"

"I wanted to apologize for yesterday. It really was-" Merlin got cut off from Arthur saying:

"It's fine Merlin. I didn't even realize that you had that much to do, so it should me apologizing. I'm sorry Merlin."

Merlin stood there dumbfounded. Arthur NEVER apologized. Then Merlin saw something in Arthur's hair. He stepped forward.

"Arthur? What is this? It's… EW! How did you manage to get poop in your hair?!"

Merlin lifted the poop up to his nose and smelt it. It was horse manure.

"How did you get horse manure in your hair. Even I don't get it in my hair when I…. you did all my chores didn't you?" Merlin asked.

"Um… well, when you said those things to me yesterday, it made me realize that I push you hard already, not even thinking that you have other things to do."

"Well thanks Arthur. Umm. I really don't know what to say."

"Well, I didn't clean my room OR my chamber pot."

"Really?! Fine."

Not a lot changed from that day, except for the amount of chores Merlin has. He now only has to muck out the stables, polish the armor, and clean the chamber pot.


	2. Arthur's POV

**A/N I decided to write the story again, but in Arthur's POV. Hope you enjoy!**

Arthur was getting ready for bed, of course listing off the chores that he wanted Merlin to complete by the morning. He could've been nice and not give Merlin any chores, but well, they wouldn't be Arthur and Merlin if he didn't give his manservant some chores to complete.

While Arthur was listing the chores, he looked over to Merlin. It looked like he wasn't even paying attention.

"Merlin! Are you even listening to me?!" he inquired.

Of course your _Highness. _You want me to muck out the stables, clean your room, and clean the chamber pot, along with polishing your armor and sharpening your bloody sword! Anything else?" ranted Merlin.

Arthur looked at Merlin with shock. Merlin almost never took an attitude with Arthur. _'Oh well. It's not like he will do anything about it. If he's upset, he will tell me.'_

"_Mer_lin! You are not allowed to talk to me that way. I could put you in the stocks for that."

"Sorry your _Highness_. While all you have to do is wait for _me_ to change _your_ clothes and do everything else for you, while you get to go to sleep immediately after you're changed! **_I, _**on the other hand, have to do everything else for you. Then, when I get done with you, I have to go out into the woods to pick some herbs for Gaius. After that, I have errands to run for Gwen because I said that I would help her out with her chores. **_Finally_**, I get to go to bed. It's normally about 3 in the morning! I get TWO hours of sleep and then I have to go get your breakfast and get your LAZY ass out of bed!" Merlin rants.

Arthur stared at Merlin. He never realized how much work Merlin had to do. He started to feel bad for giving Merlin all of these chores. Merlin left after a moment of silence. Arthur made a split second decision and followed Merlin out the door. He locked the door before hurrying after Merlin.

Merlin was using the common way to the stables, but since Arthur grew up in the castle, he knew a few shortcuts to get to the stables before Merlin did. Arthur stopped by Gaius' room to get the list of herbs that needed picked. He continued on his way to the stables. He passed a servant, which he handed the list to and asked that he gather the herbs and return them to Gaius.

Somehow, Arthur managed to beat Merlin to the stables. He knew that Merlin wasn't far behind him though, so he opened the door to the stable, and let the horses out. He felt bad the Merlin had to round up the horses, but it was the only way to keep Merlin away long enough to muck the stables. He hid just out of sight from the doors of the stable. He watched as Merlin walked up to the stable, saw the open door, groan, and then run off to find the horses. He finished mucking the stables, and quickly went to the armory.

When he entered the armory, he quickly found his armor and polish. He sat down a hurried to finish the armor before Merlin caught him. He worked for several minutes. Arthur just finished polishing his own armor when he heard footsteps walking towards the armory. He quickly put everything away and then blew the candle out. He hurried to hide behind a wall of the armory.

Merlin came in and lit a candle. Arthur watched as his servant spotted the polished armor. He watched as a surprised and grateful expression crossed on his face before a confused look settled on Merlin's face. Merlin didn't linger too long though. Merlin blew out the candle and left the armory. Arthur followed Merlin a little bit to find out where he was going.

Arthur determined that Merlin was heading to Arthur's chambers, so he hurried to Gwen's house to help her with her errands. It turned out that Gwen needed help moving some furniture around, so Arthur was helping her do that when they heard a knock on the door. Arthur quickly got out of sight from the door, while Gwen went to open it.

"Merlin!" she said.

"Gwen!" Merlin responded.

"What are you doing here?"

"Gwen, I told you yesterday that I would help you with some of your chores…" Merlin sounded confused.

"Oh! That's ok Merlin! I uh… I finished them earlier today, so you don't have to worry about it."

"Um… ok then. If you're sure?"

"Positive"

"Alright then. Goodnight Gwen."

"Night Merlin."

Gwen shut the door, and turned to face Arthur. They both smiled at each other for a moment before they got back to work. After about another half hour of work, Arthur left to head back to his chambers.

When he arrived, he unlocked the doors, entered, then shut the doors again. Arthur looked down and noticed that he was covered in horse poop. He was embarrassed that Gwen had seen like this, but he was grateful that she didn't say anything about it. He walked over to the closet and pulled out another set of clothes to change into. After he changed, he got into bed and finally fell asleep.

The next morning, Arthur was already out of bed and dressed before Merlin came in carrying breakfast.

"Here's your breakfast Sire."

"You never call me Sire unless you want something. What do you want?"

"I wanted to apologize for yesterday. It really was-" Arthur cut him off saying:

"It's fine Merlin. I didn't even realize that you had that much to do, so it should me apologizing. I'm sorry Merlin."

Merlin stood there dumbfounded for a moment. Then he seemed to catch sight of something and took a step forward.

"Arthur? What is this? It's… EW! How did you manage to get poop in your hair?!"

Merlin lifted the poop up to his nose and smelt it.

"How did you get horse manure in your hair? Even I don't get it in my hair when I…. you did all my chores didn't you?" Merlin asked.

"Um… well, when you said those things to me yesterday, it made me realize that I push you hard already, not even thinking that you have other things to do."

"Well thanks Arthur. Umm. I really don't know what to say."

"Well, I didn't clean my room OR my chamber pot."

"Really?! Fine."

Arthur was glad that everything was ok again. He couldn't do a lot for Merlin, so he decided to lessen the amount of chores that he gave Merlin. Now all he had to do was muck out the stables, polish his armor, and clean his chamber pot.


End file.
